Desks in Hernandez's room at Art Haycox School hold math books written in
English in addition to the Spanish texts.

She lets bilingual students follow along in Spanish books if they get lost as
she teaches in English.

But everything changes next year.

"Next year, some of them will understand what I am talking about," she said.
"Some of them won't."

For the fourth year, the Oxnard campus has been labeled low-performing under the
No Child Left Behind Act.

Must make changes under law

Next year, as it slides into year five, the school must make changes under the
law.

Nearly 90 percent of Haycox's 840 K-5 students speak Spanish as their first
language. The plan calls for switching from mainly Spanish to English
instruction with the hope of boosting scores on state tests taken in English.

The changes sparked mixed reaction. Administrators are hopeful the plan will
raise scores. Yet some teachers, like Hernandez, say the switch may prompt them
to leave. Meanwhile, some Spanish-speaking parents worry they will be unable to
help kids with English-based school work.

Until test results show the impact of the changes, there is little to do but
keep working and wait.

"It doesn't mean that Spanish isn't still valuable," said Principal Jan Lee.
"We're going to need to use the Spanish judiciously. ... We're not doing
anything that research doesn't demonstrate success."

A coach will watch teachers

In addition to switching languages, a coach will watch teachers in classrooms
next year, showing them how to design lessons and work with vocabulary and
concepts the students understand.

Next year, the day will begin with an hour of English instruction for all
students.

About $100,000 worth of textbooks in English is being purchased.

Instead of entering mainstream classes, immigrant students will attend a
newcomers program off campus.

Even with extra English, said Hernandez, school may be the only place students
practice. Many leave campus and walk through neighborhoods where Spanish music
blares from cars, where shopkeepers don't speak English.

They often live in $1,000-a-month apartments with other families, where kitchens
are shared and Spanish programming plays on TV.

As a teacher, Hernandez sees families whose American Dream involves returning to
Mexico. The border is close enough to cross for weeks each Christmas, to send
money to relatives, to build homes to which they will one day return.

Many of her students are products of homes where parents pick crops to put food
on the table, where the average mother or father has a sixth-grade education,
where a vision of a better life means seeing their children work at department
stores instead of bent-back in the fields.

She said some teachers -- the most experienced -- may move to other schools.
Some don't agree with the change. Others are unsure they want to try a program
that may not work.

Hernandez does not know if she will stay.

Best way to teach English

After 15 years at the school, Hernandez says she feels at home, but next year,
she may see more demands -- more testing, coaches observing the classroom --
ideas that are ultimately good, but stressful.

"Everyone wants the students to learn English," she said. "That is the ultimate
goal ... but which is the best way to teach them the language?"

There is debate on the best way to teach English. The U.S. English Foundation
points to the California English Language Development test. It shows kids
testing at early or advanced levels of the language jumped from 25 to 47 percent
between 2001 and 2005.

"Almost all the research on children shows they pick up the language like a
sponge," said Rob Toonkel, the group's director of communication. "If you
transition slowly ... toward more English, you have kids who are going to
succeed."

But Denis O'Leary, an education adviser for the League of United Latin American
Citizens, said students in bilingual classrooms need four to seven years to
become fluent. He said an English-only education may teach the language, but
kids could lose academics in the process.

"It takes time to learn a language," he said.

Yet Juan Ayala, a Haycox second-grade teacher, said English will not solve
everything.

If they learn English, he said, Haycox kids will still live in crumbling homes
with stale air.

Many will still see drug, alcohol or physical abuse.

Their parents will still work in the fields, some remaining illiterate.

They will still attend a campus, he said, with inadequate playgrounds, broken
water fountains and no trees.

"Just because you speak English does not mean anything is going to change," he
said. "What is going to be improved unless we actually address the issue of
housing, healthcare for families, substance abuse, bad nutrition. ...? I hope
our grades go up, but it's not going to solve anything."

Plan based partly on an audit

Next year's plan is based partly on an audit from the county Superintendent of
Schools Office, a study compiling classroom observation with surveys of Haycox
parents, teachers and students.

The audit was performed after Haycox was labeled in need of improvement by the
state for the fourth year.

The label comes when schools fail to meet No Child Left Behind requirements. The
act says a certain percentage of kids at each campus must test "proficient" each
year in English and math. The goal is 100 percent proficiency by 2014.

Last year, 16 percent of kids at each U.S. school were to test proficient in
math, while 13.6 percent were expected to do so in English. Haycox missed the
mark by about one percentage point, and just 12 percent of English learners and
Latino students passed language portions of tests.

Haycox's principal, Lee, is optimistic the plan will work next year, but
optimism does not stop her from worrying as she drifts to sleep at night.

"Oh, please," she thinks to herself, "let this work."

There are 800 kids depending on her and her staff. For Lee, that may be the
biggest pressure of all.